Over 250 employees of B9 Beverages, makers of Bira 91 craft beer, approached its board and top investors to plead for a “leadership change,” as per the Economic Times.
The concerned employees, according to ET, approached the Japanese beverage company Kirin Holdings and Peak XV Partners, who are on B9’s board and top investors, to remove Ankur Jain, Founder and CEO of Bira 91, from the company’s helm. The employees also sent a petition to the company’s largest lender, Anicut Capital, after the company held a town hall in September, a copy of which ET claimed to have seen.
As per ET, the petition cited “corporate governance failure, lack of transparency, delays in employee dues and salaries”, as well as cases filed by creditors “showing deteriorating financials” and pending payments to vendors as reasons for a leadership change within Bira 91.
ET’s sources include a person in the know who claimed that almost all the current employees have backed the petition. Executives aware of the developments at New Delhi-based B9 Beverages said Bira91’s production stopped in July, ET added. American asset management fund BlackRock, which was in advanced talks to invest ₹500 crore of debt in the promoter group of B9 Beverages, too, has apparently pulled out, as per the source.
Jain stated the company “is not aware of any such petition addressed to key shareholders.” The Founder added that the board has also not received any communication. Jain added that while the production of Bira 91 had been on “pause” in September, it will resume in October.
Many employees, as per ET, have told the news outlet that they have not received salaries for the past six months and have not received reimbursements since November 2024. According to an employee ET spoke to, tax deducted at source by Bira 91 has not been deposited for the last financial year, and the last PF was made in March 2024.
The pending salaries and reimbursements for more than 500 employees, many of whom are no longer a part of the company, amount to around ₹50 crore, another employee told ET. “Besides, there have been multiple layoffs and exits,” they added. ET has been informed that Bira 91 now has just over 260 employees, compared to 700 in the last year.
“It is true that we have employee overdues that have been persisting. These range between 3 and 5 months, depending on the level of employees, and include a delay in payments of tax dues as well,” Jain shared with ET.
Jain claimed that the company was restructuring its business by focusing on fewer states, reducing fixed costs and focusing on gross margins.
“This has meant taking hard calls on reducing costs, including reducing employee headcount by nearly 50% over the last 15 months,” Jain explained. He also cited “significant business disruptions” over the last 18 months, caused by a change in the company name that triggered the requirement to re-register licences, changes in liquor policies and delays in its fundraising process.
” These resulted in volume degrowth in FY25, complete disruption of the company’s business and cash flow for several months and a pileup of overdues, including statutory dues, employee dues and vendor dues,” Jain added to ET.
